Nest kicks off CES 2015 with new smart home partnerships

LAS VEGAS -- Nest has been tacking on product partners since its initial developer program announcement last June. With several big-name integrations already secured -- Dropcam, Mercedes-Benz, Whirlpool -- this open-software-collaboration, dubbed "Works with Nest," appears to have caught on in a major way.

Now, Nest is really showing off its industry dominance at CES 2015; it's adding over a dozen new brand integrations to the initiative. And, unlike its last large-batch partnership announcement, this one includes more key players in the appliances and smart home sector.

August , LG , Philips Hue and UniKey have all just been inducted into Works with Nest and the related integrations are available right now.

The August Smart Lock.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET

So, if you happen to have a Nest Learning Thermostat and an August Smart Lock, you can pair them so that unlocking or locking your door automatically kicks your thermostat into either Home or Away mode (similarly, the UniKey Kevo Smart Lock knows who is home as well as their preferred temperature setting). And, whenever your Nest does switch to Away, you can program your LG fridge to focus on energy savings.

On the Nest Protect side of things, if the smoke and CO2 detector senses that something's amiss, you're now supposed to be able to set your Philips Hue LEDs to flash as a warning.